South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

In the two pillar inscriptions, the name Kaṁṭakasōla is preceded by the word ukhasirivadhamānē, but in both cases the vowel-marks of the last two syllables are conjectural. There is, however, a third inscription in which the word occurs, and here the stroke indicating the vowel ē in the final syllable is perfectly clear. It must therefore be a noun in the locative case, and we are perhaps justified in assuming that it indicates the locality where the monuments to which the inscriptions refer were erected. In other words, Ukhasirivadhamāna appears to be the ancient name of Ghaṇṭasāla. The occurrence of Vardhamāna^[1] as a place-name in ancient India is testified by inscriptions, the best known examples being the town of Bardwān in Bengal and Vaḍhvān, the chief town of a state of the same name in North-East Kathiawar. Ptolemy (VII, 1, 93) mentions Bardamána among the inland towns of the Maisōloi, and as in his days the b had assumed the sound value of v which it has in modern Greek, the name is an exact rendering of Vardhamāna. The position assigned by the Greek geographer to Bardamána is 136º 15′ E 15º 15′ N, whilst he located Kantakossyla at 134º 30′ E 11º 30′ N. This renders it difficult to identify his Bardamána with Ukhasirivaddhamāna.

Another alternative would be to connect the last-mentioned place with Kaṇṭakasōla and to explain as a territorial division in which this emporium was situated. In support of such an explanation one might quote the topographical designation “ kaṁmākara[ṭ]ṭhē gāmē Naḍatūrē ” (Jaggayyapēṭa inscription No. 2, l. 2),^[2] meaning ‘ in the village of Naḍatūra in the province (raṭṭha) of Kammāka ’. But the third inscription which opens with Ukhasirivadhamānē without further mention of a town or village prevents us from accepting such an interpretation.

A point of some interest to which Dr. Chhabra draws my attention is the mention of a mahānāvika named Sivaka in one (E) of the Ghaṇṭasāla inscriptions. We are reminded of another mahānāvika,^[3] named Buddhagupta, who is mentioned in a Sanskrit inscription discovered in 1834 by Captain James Low near a ruined Buddhist temple in the province Wellesley of Malaya. The inscribed slab was presented by him to the Asiatic Society of Bengal and must still be preserved in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. In both cases the expression reminds us of the seaborne trade between Coromandel and Further India carried on under the direction of Buddhist master mariners.

The inscriptions A and B are written in a very ornamental kind of writing very similar to the script employed in the epigraphic documents of the Ikshvāku dynasty from Jaggayapēṭa and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa. The Jaggayyapēṭa inscriptions were assigned by Dr. Bühler to the third century A.D. The long-drawn vertical strokes of ka, ra and la and of the vowel-marks for i and u are among the most obvious characteristics of this writing. The bulging base-strokes of ṇa, na, ma and va, which are also founds in the Pallava inscriptions, as well as the shape of ya, seem to point to a somewhat later development. It will, however, be seen that these bulging base-strokes do not occur in inscription C which must be contemporaneous with A and B, as the three inscriptions refer to the same monument, viz., a maṇḍapa erected by the householder Buddhisiri. The two pillars on which A and B are incised must have served the purpose of supporting the roof of this pavilion. Above the inscription there are in each case two figures of animals running from right to left. The lions of the first pillar are similar in style to those found on some of the Nāgārjunikoṇḍa sculptures.

Whereas the inscriptions on these two pillars are excellent specimens of epigraphic art, it is curious that the third inscription, consisting of a single line of writing, has been done in such a careless manner. Apparently this short epigraph was not intended for permanent record, but was meant only as a notice, indicating for what edifice the piece of sculpture on which it is cut was intended.

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^[1] Place-names, ending in vardhana, like Kōśavardhana and Dharmavardhana, are fairly common.
^[2] Burgers, op. cit., p. 110, pl. LXII, No. 2.
^[3] Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (New Series), Vol. I (1935), p. 17. The father of Kaṇṇaki, the heroine of the Tamil classic Śilappadikāram (circa 200 A.D.) was a mānāikan. The translator, V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, has translated the term as ‘ sea-captain ’, though he has equated it with Skt. mahānāyaka (p. 88, n.2), whereas it can very well be mahānāvika. For this information I am indebted to Mr. M. Venkataramayya, Assistant to the Government Epigraphist.